


Calling in your love, it's time for something

by twelvetrop



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: AU, Actor Jake, F/M, Fluffy, High School AU, I literally know nothing about theatre so bear with me, Tech Amy, This is my first attempt at "long" fic, angsty, im gonna try tho, probably irregular updates, sorry if I keep you guys hanging
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-01 08:16:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18332165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twelvetrop/pseuds/twelvetrop
Summary: Jake Peralta and Amy Santiago have known each other since freshman year. They joined theatre that year as well, but in completely different roles: Jake is an actor and Amy is a tech.It's now their senior year, and some emotions start developing. How will they cope, after knowing each other for so long? Will something ever blossom?(Prompt given by @ggiinnaa30 on Twitter)





	1. Set Up

**Author's Note:**

> The song in the title is "Borderline" by Tame Impala.  
> Feel free to give me any feedback!

Jake Peralta yelled out his final line, and the lights went out. The theatre stage was silent, for five seconds, and he took in the silence. Acting always made him thoughtful, but maybe not in the way everyone guessed he was. He didn’t think about pizza or Die Hard, he thought about the applause that would follow, the adrenaline rush that came from finishing something successfully, the joined talent of everyone in the cast and crew and how, every time, no matter the play or place, it was all about one thing: giving the audience a journey they (hopefully) would never forget.

In those five seconds, before the lights rose again, all those emotions flooded him, and he was certain that everyone would see he was teary eyed. No one did, though, or if they did, no one mentioned it.

“Great job, everyone!” Said the theatre teacher, Mr. Raymond Holt. He was the only sitting in the wide auditorium.

Everyone from the cast clapped, and the people who oversaw sound and lighting left their hole up in the control room and joined the celebration.

“That is enough applause.” Everyone stopped. “This general rehearsal went great, but there are still details that could be better. As such, until the date of the show, we will practice these scenes to improve those flaws, and do another rehearsal at the end of the week to see where we stand. Is everyone okay with this plan?”

An agreeable murmur was heard throughout the auditorium.

“Good. Remember to put the props back in their place, clean up, and turn off all the electronic devices that were used. That will be all.” Mr. Holt said, in his perfectly monotone voice.

Everyone started shuffling to clean up the sets. Amy Santiago left the stage and went back up to the “tech zone”, the affectionally called control room for all the techs. Sometimes she wondered why the school would let high schoolers control such expensive equipment, but then she remembered all the hours she had to prepare for such a thing. The crash course nearly lasted a month, and her final test felt long and gruelling, but she managed to ace it. Her friend and partner in a lot of things, Rosa Diaz, also did the crash course, but only did it a few months later than her.

She did that test when she was a freshman, and now she was a senior. Life really did fly by, sometimes.

Rosa and Amy sat down on some of the spread-out chairs of the room, and Amy sighed.

“Are you that tired?” Rosa asked her.

“Kind of. The calculus test we have next week has kept me up more times than I’m willing to admit.”

“Hey, calm down.” Rosa scooted her chair closer to her, the effort groaning on the used wheels of it. “You’re going to do fine.”

“This is our senior year, Rosa! You know, the end of the best days of our lives?”

“People usually like college better.” She said and put her feet up on the console. Thankfully, Amy had the foresight of turning it off, otherwise we’d have another Easter Disaster. Well, nothing in those proportions, but it would be annoying.

“You really should stop doing that.”

“Why? I know you turned the console off.” She winked.

“Ever since the Easter Disaster, I always disable the buttons. If I turned the console off, we’d be shrouded in darkness.”

“And that, my friend, is why we’re always the last ones to leave.”

“It’s kind of our job.”

“My only job is sharpening knives and threatening people.”

“There is a surprising number of knives in your room.” Amy smirked. “And also, handmade things you sell on Etsy.”

Rosa took her feet off the console. “If you tell anyone about them…”

Amy put a hand up. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

Amy smiled, and Rosa nodded.

“We should probably start cleaning up.” Rosa said.

“Probably.” Amy stared at the commotion outside, people strolling from one side to another, carrying things. She and Rosa sometimes helped cleaning things up, but today none of them were in the mood to carry things. She saw someone in particular though, their eyes clean from the glistening she thought she saw earlier. Was it sweat that had fallen from his eyebrows? Was it something else?

Tears?

No.

Jake Peralta never cried. At least, not in front of her.

“Do you know where the mop is?” Rosa’s question snapped Amy out of her trance. She got up and, when she did, a yell was heard from below. Choosing to ignore it, she went to help her friend.

* * *

 “JACOB PERALTA.” Gina yelled.

Jake cringed at the loudness. What had he done this time?

“What?”

“The amount of times I’ve told you how to store clothes, and you still mess it up?” She came up towards him. “There’s _labels_ on those things for a reason, dumbass.”

“I did organize them with the labels you put!”

She shoved a piece of clothing in his arms. “Check the tag.”

“It says ‘P32’.”

“And now the other side.”

He flipped the tag around. “It now says ‘P30’.”

“And why am I yelling at you?”

“I don’t know? It’s an honest mistake.”

Gina could only sigh. “Check the tag. _Closely._ ”

He inspected it, and after a thorough check-up, he saw a blue “X” below the label.

“Oh.”

“Exactly. Now, as punishment, you’re going to have to reorganize the closet. Alone.”

“What? You’re insane!”

Charles decided to step in at that moment, after seeing Jake’s exasperated face.

“Whatever the problem is, I’ll help!”

“No. Jake’s done enough damage. He’s got to learn a lesson.”

“Like you’re my mom, Gina.” Jake walked towards Charles. “Thanks for the help, Charles.”

He hugged Jake. “Anything for my best buddy.”

Jake was slightly uncomfortable for a while, and when the hug ended, he scratched his neck.

“Fine. I’ll allow it. Only because if I don’t-” And she looked straight at Charles in this part. “-you’ll be bothering me for a week, and I can’t stand that.”

“Dealing with me everyday is much better!” Charles said.

Gina rolled her eyes. “Just make sure to finish before ‘Control’ over there-” She pointed to the window where the techs oversaw everything. “-closes everything down.”

Jake nodded, and Charles said that everything would be done in no time.

* * *

 This was a lie.

They were in the stuffed room of the closet for nearly an hour, and the situation was dire. Jake sat down on the floor and grunted.

“This is impossible. Imagine having to do this alone!”

As if the Gods had cursed him, Charles looked at his watch.

“Crap!”

“Charles, don’t tell me…”

“The new ‘Mystic Foods’ store is nearly about to open!”

Jake sighed, and decided to spread his body on the wooden floorboards. “Go ahead, buddy. I can finish the rest on my own.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” He lifted his head and smiled. “This isn’t that hard, I’m just complaining.”

Charles shouted an excited “Thanks, buddy!” and bolted out of the room.

“Great.” Jake said out loud, to the pile of clothes in the corner. “Marie Kondo, where are you when I need you?”

He picked himself up, put on some earbuds and got back to work. Gina was trying to make him suffer, and only she knew why. It’s not like she’d tell him anything. So, he kept furiously organizing the clothes, making sure things were extra perfect just out of spite. The ‘M’ flew by, the ‘G’ soon after, and, after what seemed like an eternity (it had only passed half an hour), Jake was only down to the ‘T’. He never knew who first made the lettering system, but someone always managed to understand it, and that person lectured the others. And it kept being the system they used to this day.

And then the lights went out.

Jake Peralta never cried. Not in public.

But the sheer absurdity of his situation made him so incredibly angry he just wanted to punch a wall. But he didn’t, so he decided to just let tears flow. He turned on his flashlight and tried to make his way to the fuse box. They were all in their place, which means someone turned the lights off on purpose.

Did no one know he was there? Was he really that invisible?

He was an actor, but even still. Continuing to the control room, he opened the door. The floor was freshly cleaned, but he didn’t care. He pointed his light to the confusing mess of buttons and levers that was the tech console. The ‘Sanctuary’, as he liked to call it. Near a button that said “GENERAL”, there was a phone. He made a mental reminder to give it to the Lost & Found of the school. He tried pressing that button, but nothing happened. He used his shirt to clean off his tears and inspected the beast. There should be an “all on” button, that was for sure. He pressed some random ones, but nothing seemed to happen.

“With the buttons locked, you can’t make anything happen, you know?”

He turned around and saw Amy Santiago standing by the doorway.

 _Shit._ He thought.

“Hey, this isn’t what it looks like.” He started explaining.

“Relax.” Amy said, and walked towards the console. She picked up the phone that was standing next to the “GENERAL” button and fiddled with the console for a while.

“What room do you need lit?”

“Uh… backstage. Closet.”

“What are you doing back there so late?”

“Gina made me do it.”

Amy sighed. “Of course she did. She has power over all of us. It’s kind of surprising, honestly.”

Jake agreed. “She really does. It’s intimidating.”

Some of the lights turned on, and Amy turned around triumphantly. “And another problem solved!” She then noticed his eyes. “Hey, were you crying?”

“Ha! Me?” Jake snorted. “In your dreams, Santiago.”

“All right, I was just concerned… You don’t need to be such a dick about it.”

Jake decided to ignore that comment, and not let it show how it hurt him a bit.

“Well, could you just hang out here for a while? Just so you can, you know…” He wiggled his fingers towards the console.

“Turn off the lights?”

“Yes, Santiago. Your brain waves really are that powerful.”

“That’s not how the brain works.”

“Sure.”

“Jake, no one know how our brain works.”

“It’s because of brain waves.”

She just stared at him. “All right. Go do your thing.” She dragged a chair and sat down. “I’ll wait.”

“Thank you! I owe you my life.” He sprinted towards the stage, and Amy saw him disappear behind the wooden walls.

She sighed. Why did she have such weird feelings for him? They were great friends, but sometimes he just got on her nerves.

“Let’s just hope I solve this by the end of the year…” She mumbled out loud.

Jake, meanwhile, was gasping for breath. Besides the run, he talked to Amy... alone. One on one. His heart was pumping. God, he’d fallen for her hard. He only kept thinking about how she probably didn’t like him that way, that he was the tolerably annoying one that she was going to forget as soon as she went to Harvard… or something. So, instead of thinking about that, he cleaned.

* * *

 As soon as he was done, he shouted to Amy that everything was okay. Over the intercom, she said he could leave, that she could close everything up on her own.

“What kind of person would I be to let you leave school this late on your own?”

“I told you, I can do this.”

“Well, we’re leaving together, whether you like it or not.”

She sighed. “All right.”

She shut everything down, and they talked cheerfully all the way to the bus stop, where they went their separate ways.


	2. Another Day

Jake groaned as he shut off his alarm, proceeding to turn himself over and trying to fall asleep, only to be rudely taken out of his daze by yet another alarm. He shut that one off again and sat on his bed, sheets still covering his body. Only a few more seconds passed, and _another_ alarm rang out.

_God, why did I set an alarm every minute?_ He thought.

He then furiously tapped every single one of his alarms off (there was in impressive total of thirty-one alarms, from 7 AM to 7:40 AM. The intervals were sporadic, and how he had the patience of setting up so many of them was completely out of his morning mind. His night mind, though, thought it was an excellent idea), and decided to just get up and start his day earlier than usual. Jake took a shower, got dressed and was in the process of making some toast, when his mom stepped into the kitchen.

“You’re up early! I thought I was going to have to wake you up again.”

“Yeah, I decided to set up a billion alarms, and not ignore them all for once.” Jake mumbled.

“Well, I need to go to work. You’re going to be okay?” She said.

“Of course, Mom. Don’t worry about me.”

Karen stepped closer to him and kissed his cheek. Jake feigned disgust and cleaned it with a napkin.

“I always worry. Now, see if you arrive to school on time!”

“Yeah, I will!”

She opened the door, and when the it closed shut, Jake bit off a piece of his toast. Scrolling through some random feeds on his phone, he settled on a single tweet by Amy.

_The early bird gets the worm!_ It said.

He rolled his eyes and sent her a message.

* * *

 

Jake [7:20 AM]  
The early bird doesn’t always get the worm, sweaty :)

Amy [7:20 AM]  
I-  
Did you wake up just to tell me that?  
Do you have notifications on for my tweets or something?  
Stalker

Jake [7:22 AM]  
Look, i woke up early okay  
Sometimes i’m allowed to do that

Amy [7:23 AM]  
Sure jan

Jake [7:23 AM]  
I hate you  
So much  
I hope you know that

Amy [7:24 AM]  
Xoxo gossip girl

Jake [7:24 AM]  
I can’t believe you just used gossip girl against me

Amy [7:25 AM]  
Just go to school early for once in your life dumbass

Jake [7:25 AM]  
I might do it just to spite you.

Amy [7:26 AM]  
Well, as long as you arrive on time

Jake [7:27 AM]  
I’ll arrive earlier than you

Amy [7:27 AM]  
I’m already at the bus stop

Jake [7:28 AM]  
I’m already on the bus

Amy [7:28 AM]  
Prove it

Jake [7:29 AM]  
Give me a sec

* * *

 

Amy knew Jake was clearly lying. He’d never go to school early, even if he did wake up early. His complete disregard to this schedule was incredible, and she completely saw the wreck he was in the morning because they always got stuck together in morning classes.

Of course, in the beginning, it was very different.

Their freshman year, they basically hated each other. But fate kept making them have group projects together, or the only available seat in the whole classroom was miraculously next to Amy (she suspected that after a few times, people did it on purpose). He annoyed her constantly while the teacher wasn’t looking, and she swore that, sometimes, one of her blood vessels would pop out of how frustrated he made her.

Jake was also annoyed by her “general presence”, as he once said to her.

“My what?”

“Your aura.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She’d asked.

He’d never answered her, because the teacher decided to turn back around at that exact moment, and when she pressed on it in the grey-white hallways of the school, he told her to forget it. And she did.

It’s not like she wanted to talk to him, anyway.

_Things really have changed, huh?_

She slowly returned to the present at the sight of the bus arriving at the stop. She stepped in, and luckily found a place to sit. It was a ten minute commute between her nearest bus stop and the school, so she took the time to put on her earbuds and attempt to listen to some music. She stared out the window, watching buildings fly by, the lazy morning sun making it seem like they had a grey filter over them. Just as the bus came to another stop, her phone decided to ping. She stared at the message from Jake, and saw that he was, in fact, sitting on the bus. She chuckled and locked the phone. She’d give him hell, later.

* * *

 

“What do you mean Ms. Kozak is married?” Jake exclaimed.

“I’m telling you, she is.” Gina replied, nonchalantly. “Are you doubting my investigative skills?”

“No, I’d never doubt them.” They scared him. Gina could pull dirt on everyone she wanted, if only you gave her half a day to dig enough. “But I just never saw the ring on her finger.”

“They’re separated.”

“You should’ve started with that!”

Amy walked in to see two people already in the classroom.

“Today is definitely like any other day.” She said, and sat on her desk, besides Jake. Gina was behind him, doing something on her phone.

“Are you ever going to stop playing Kwazy Kupcakes?”

“No.” She said, bluntly, before getting up. “I’m going to my class idiots. Bye.”

She left, leaving Jake and Amy alone.

“You got lucky.” Amy said.

“About what?” Jake tilted his head.

“Don’t play dumb with me. Traffic was hell today, and that’s the only reason you got here earlier than me.”

“Or maybe I was already in the bus. Which, by the way…” He pulled out his phone. “Reminds me that you left me on read.”

“I was enjoying the bus ride.”

“No one likes a cramped bus ride.”

“I managed to find a place to sit.”

He scoffed. “Sure.”

More people started flowing in the classroom, as the clock on the wall ticked closer and closer to 8 AM.

“Hey, let me whisper something to you.” Jake said, noticing how many people were already sitting down and chatting.

Amy got closer to him, and he whispered in her ear:

“Ms. Kodak is married.”

Amy gasped, loudly. People turned to look at her, but soon enough, the regular voices were heard.

“Really?” She said, through a closed mouth.

Jake nodded. “Gina just confirmed it to me.”

They gossiped for a while. For students, nothing is more interesting than the personal life of a teacher.

The aforementioned Ms. Kodak opened the door, and people sat down. Amy told Jake to shut up, and he asked her for a piece of paper.

As she paid attention to the lecture, Jake scribbled random things, and gave the paper at the end of class in the shape of a frog.

“Another frog?” She said, as she was putting her notebooks on her bag. “Step up your game, Peralta.”

“I keep forgetting how to make a swan.”

“Really? I know how to do one.”

Jake winked at her. “Show me during lunch, then.”

She rolled her eyes. “Only if you can find a notebook with detachable papers. I’m tired of mine getting thinner and thinner.”

He gestured a cross on his heart, and dramatically wiped a non-existent tear off his eyes. “I will try to make such a sacrifice.”

Amy sighed. “I don’t know what to do with you.”

She said goodbye and walked away to her class.

He went to his locker and stored some books there. Making sure no one was watching, he took out some instructions on how to make an origami rose out of between two sheets of paper of a Biology book.

* * *

 

“Ms. Kodak is married?” Rosa asked.

“Is it really that much of a surprise?” Gina said. “She’s not that unattractive.”

“Gina, please. I’m trying to eat, not trying to think about if our teachers look ‘hot or not’.” Amy said.

The lunch table was now with the full quintet: Jake and Amy were sitting opposite to each other, Charles next to him. In front of Charles, Rosa was picking at something on her plate and Gina had somehow dragged a chair and sat on the side of the table, setting her as the centre of the attention.

“I really don’t care who you find attractive or not, Amy.”

“I think Jake’s the most beautiful man in the world!” Charles exclaimed. Jake chuckled nervously.

“All right buddy, turn it down.” Jake said. “Let’s talk about something else? Please.”

“What about the play?” Amy asked.

“Easter is nearly upon us.” Gina said. A sound of triumphant horns emanated from her phone.

“How… how did you set that up so fast?” Jake was awed.

“I have this sound on easy access.”

“I- Okay.”

“Man, you guys have a great production this year. Were did the sets even come from?” Rosa said, and took a bite from her apple.

“We made them over the course of the year!” Charles exclaimed. “It was a lot of fun to build it and paint them, honestly.”

“You meant to say it was hellish, right?” Gina retorted.

“You didn’t even do anything!” Charles complained.

“I _supervised._ And, thank me I did, because the amount of messes I spotted took years off my lifespan.”

“And it also helped the production.” Charles noted.

“Yeah, that.”

The usual banter followed then, and, soon enough, they got up and left for their spot in the school.

It was on the bleachers of the football field that they usually hung out before classes, or when they had some sort of spare time. It was usually empty at that hour, but when the practices started it filled up with people. None of them really appreciated sports that much, but it made enough noise to cover up their usual antics.

When they arrived, Jake turned to Amy:

“I bet you I can slide down the entire handrail.”

“Are you kidding?” She crossed her arms. “It’s enormous.”

“Title of your sex tape!”

Amy rolled her eyes, Jake and Charles laughed and high-fived and Rosa and Gina just groaned.

“How much do you want to bet?”

“I’m not wasting money on this stupid bet.”

“That’s not what the other times told me.” He grinned.

They did have an ongoing bet to see who would kiss another person first. Ever since breaking up with her previous boyfriend, Amy just found herself longing for some contact. Jake, picking up on Amy’s behaviours, turned to her on Ms. Kodak’s class and asked her that, if she kissed someone before him, he’d have to give her thirty bucks. If he did it first, however, she had to give him the money. To everyone’s surprise, she accepted.

That was two months ago.

None of them still had done anything, and a bit of tension was rising.

“Just because you bet that I couldn’t turn off the lights in the middle of rehearsal from time to time, doesn’t mean I won’t actually do it.”

“I did lose ten bucks total…” Jake mumbled.

Rosa turned to Amy. “You turned off the lights?”

“It was two times!” Amy got flabbergasted. “I was really bored, all right!”

“She did it for like, a millisecond. She couldn’t even turn it off for a full minute.” Gina said.

“Both times?” Rosa asked.

“Yeah.” Gina confirmed.

“It’s Jake’s fault for not doing more clauses in bets.”

“What?” Jake looked confused.

“Clauses, Jakey. It’s like, terms and conditions.”

“Oh! That explains why I never do them. It’s better to keep the thrill and not know what you’re heading into!”

“I actually read the terms and conditions, sometimes.” Charles said.

Amy grabbed Charles’ hand. “Thank God I’m not the only one.”

“I’m gonna slide anyway!” Jake said, trying to change the subject. “If I do it, each of you owes me five dollars!”

Gina pointed the camera at him. “Whenever you’re ready, hun!”

She pressed record, and Jake slid through half of the railing before falling. Backwards.

“Oh my God!” Amy yelled.

“Jake!” Charles managed to say.

“Are you okay, man?” Rosa said.

Gina was just laughing.

Amy, Charles and Rosa went to check on him, half expecting to see his back broken, only to find him resting on some mattresses, relaxing.

“Hey guys, you all right?” He said and pointed his index fingers at them.

A collective groan was heard (except for a sigh of relief from Charles), and Gina was still laughing.

Jake collected himself and when got near Gina, he high-fived her.

“You just got pranked!” They said, simultaneously.

“I can’t believe I fell for this one.” Amy said, and sat down again.

“I’m just awed at the level of detail that went on this one.” Rosa remarked.

“I’m just glad Jake’s okay!” Charles exclaimed.

“Thanks, buddy!” Jake smiled.

They talked until the bell rang, and when the last class arrived, they all went to the bleachers for a few minutes, just appreciating each other’s company.

After that, they all went to rehearsal together.


	3. Fake It

“All right, let me just press that button!” Jake pointed at a random button in the ‘Sanctuary’.

“That one sets off the sprinklers.” Rosa said.

“Isn’t that against the law or something?”

Amy sighed, and moved to press the button.

“AMY WHAT ARE YOU DOING? OH MY GO- oh.” The look of disappointment was evident in his face when he realised that all it did was turn on the stage lights. “Well, that was disappointing.”

“Your reaction was worth every second of it.” Rosa grinned. “ _Tonto._ ”

“Does that mean ‘cool’ in Spanish? It’s the only thing I’ll accept.”

“It means ‘idiot’, Jake.” Amy said, and mouthed to Rosa “ _Tienes razón.”_

She winked at her, and got up from the old chair, which squeaked loudly.

“Damn.” Jake said. “You’ve gotta replace those chairs.”

“They’ve always been here.” Amy said. “Plus, they’re actually pretty comfortable. And the wheels work surprisingly well, which allows us to move quickly from one side to another. The only downside is that they desperately need oil. They make a lot of noise.”

“Did you make another list?”

Amy blushed. “No! Okay yeah, I did, but shut up! I was going to ask for funds to buy new chairs but only made a request for oil.”

“Which they still haven’t said anything about yet.” Rosa added. “You made that request a few months ago, Amy. Maybe you should pressure them.”

“Bureaucracies take time! Filing out paper work, waiting for it to get approved…” She let out a dreamy sigh. “It’s kind of my heaven. I wonder why the school office never accepted my volunteering application.”

“Probably so you wouldn’t sneak around and check other student’s files.” Rosa said. “I’d snoop around. I’d love to know what our files say.”

“Same, Rosa. Same.” Jake said.

They stared at the stage below, still covered with most of the props, the light making the glitter on the floor seem more like a battle scar than a scene that had just happened.

Rehearsal had gone fine. Mr. Holt had thought about repeating none of Jake’s scenes so, in an act of rebellion (but not really), he decided to spend the whole time with Rosa and Amy. It was an eventful day for both techs, as Jake kept asking questions when they were supposed to be paying attention to the play, or he would re-enact the scene that was occurring dramatically, making one of them laugh (Amy) and it would just make it difficult for the other person (Rosa) to reach both ends of the console quickly. Nothing bad had happened though, and they actually appreciated his company, instead of the usual buzz of the electric light above them.

Jake also liked seeing things from their perspective. He was used to seeing the audience, not _being_ the audience, so he always thought that looking at it through the other side would always let him know something about how they were doing. And boy, did he realise what things needed to change. Mr. Holt had a keener eye for things than him, being older and all, but he could most certainly tell the bad parts and the good parts about everyone’s acting and set design.

Not that he’d ever tell anyone what he felt, though. That was what the teacher was for.

“Aren’t you going to help them?” Amy asked, after a while.

“Glitter’s a bitch to clean up. I’d rather hang out with both of you.”

“If you’re hanging out with us, you better help us out.” Rosa was tapping at a random button on the console. Again, Amy had the foresight to turn the buttons off in their small moment of contemplation. If the buttons were still on, they were probably being yelled at for turning the mikes on and off.

“What do I have to do?”

“There’s a mop in that closet over there.” Amy pointed at it.

“And what do you want me to do with it?”

“…mop the floor?” Amy said.

“Do you mop this room daily or are you just doing it to spite me?” Jake pouted.

“We have to mop it everyday. School rules or whatever.” Rosa added.

“Oh. Well then, I’ll do it.” Jake got up and went to the small brown door that opened the stuffed closet and took out the mop and the bucket. “It’s going to be so clean that in the end, you’re going to see your reflection on it as if it was a mirror. It’s going to be so well done that-”

Jake kicked the bucket, and water spewed everywhere. Rosa turned to Amy, with a knowing look.

“I know, I know, I should’ve seen it coming.” Amy said. “But he looked so dedicated! What was I supposed to do?”

Jake just looked at the slow spread of the water. “Why didn’t you warn me this was filled with water?”

“It’s funnier to see your reaction when this inevitably happened.” Rosa said.

“Hey!”

“What? She’s not lying. It _was_ funny.” Amy added.

“HEY!”

All three of them started laughing, and Amy got up and stretched.

“All right, I’m going to talk to Mr. Holt about something. You guys have fun.”

“Stop being such a kiss ass and help me out.” Jake said.

“I do that. Everyday.” Amy made sure the pauses were dramatic. “You and Rosa have fun!”

Amy dropped the keys on the console and left the room. When she was out of earshot, Rosa checked to see if the comms were turned off and turned to Jake.

“So, how long have you liked Amy?”

Jake nearly slipped on the floor.

* * *

 Gina was already irritated.

“Charles, the props have their set places and stamps. You can’t just go around do whatever you please with them!”

“I ordered them just like last week!”

“The system changed since last week.”

“I think you’re lying.” He crossed his arms. “It’s fine just as it is.”

“Are you going to make me do this?”

“Do what?”

She showed him her phone. “Do you want my fury?”

“Go ahead.” Charles said. “You know I have no shame.”

He was right, and Gina knew it. For the first time ever, she had to give in to Charles.

“All right. You win this one. But if you tell anyone about this… I’ll talk about your old crush on Rosa.”

“Everyone already knows about that!” Charles said, and wondered off. “Bye!”

She had never been so annoyed at someone so happy. Then, Amy showed up.

“Have you seen Mr. Holt?”

“God, do you have to be such a kiss ass? You could help out around here, you know.”

“Jake said the exact same thing. And I help out! I’m in tech!”

“Tech this, tech that. Honestly, Amy is that your only personality trait?” Amy opened her mouth, but Gina didn’t let her finish. “Right, you love books and paperwork. I forgot about that because it’s so boring.”

“It’s not boring! It has it pros!”

Gina rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Mr. Holt’s in his office.”

“Thank you.”

“Sure.”

She walked away and Gina resumed her supervising mission.

After what seemed like a while, she heard Jake leaving ‘Control’. He seemed grim, so she took it upon herself to be everyone’s counsellor and approached him.

“What’s up, man?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Do you want to just leave?”

“Yeah.” He said. “I’d really appreciate that, actually.”

She slapped his neck. “Too bad! You’re staying here and helping put things in their place.”

“What? I thought you were going to let me go!”

“Are you kidding?” She crossed her arms. “You bailed on us today, so you gotta pay the price.”

“This is the second punishment in a row!”

“It’s not my fault you’re such an idiot.” She slapped his neck again. “Get to work!”

“Stop slapping me!”

“I’ll stop slapping when you start working!” She did the motion again, and Jake covered his neck and started running.

“All right, I’m going!” He may have look hurt, but he was, in fact, smiling.

Gina knew exactly what Jake needed when he was feeling down: a distraction. And she made him at least be slightly productive when he was distracted. Jake was already goofing off with his colleagues, making random bets or throwing some unwanted trivia about his life that made them laugh.

She cared about him, but Gina also felt that he was a complete idiot, sometimes. Well, most of the time, but she also thought that most people were idiots, so there wasn’t a good scale to be found. You were either Gina Linetti, or you weren’t.

* * *

 Time flew by, and before Jake knew it, everything was stored.

“All right.” He clapped his hands together to get rid of the dust. “Let’s get some rest everybody!”

“There’s homework to do, Jake!” Said someone.

“I don’t do that!”

Everyone laughed.

“Thanks for laughing at my misfortunes and see you next Friday!”

Everyone filtered out, and Jake picked up his things and headed towards the school gates. There, he found Amy on her phone and standing, as if she was waiting for someone.

“Looking for someone, Santiago?” He asked her.

She locked her phone and put it in her bag. “Well, I was about to text you. You’re my usual company to the bus stop, so…”

“Well, well. Getting sentimental?”

“Can it, Peralta.”

He sighed. “All right then, let’s go.”

They walked together in silence. Jake had a lot on his mind and Amy was still buzzing from her talk with her mentor/idol Mr. Holt. So, they kept to themselves, until someone in front of them tripped and nearly fell, which made them chuckle silently. After that, they were talking again, about their classes, their likes and dislikes, and random things.

_This is what friends do, right?_ Jake thought.

The bus stop came into view, and Jake said goodbye to Amy before sprinting to catch his bus. Amy had to wait for a while still, and she just saw the leaves fly with the Spring wind. When her ride arrived, she stepped into it and managed to find another seat. Smiling, she looked out the window again, seeing the effects of the golden hour on the windows of buildings. She could only think of one thing, however.

_I wish I could talk to this about Jake._

She rubbed her eyes and tried to not focus on that. She failed, miserably, and took a somewhat nice photo. Sending it to him, they immediately picked up where they had left off, and talked until Amy reached her home. After that, they talked until dinner, and then until they fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this one is kind of short. The next one is probably going to be extra long, both to make up for this one and to set up some things!


	4. Oil On Water

When Jake arrived at the classroom (about ten minutes late), Amy was already there, chatting eagerly with Rosa.

“You really think they’re going to give us that upgrade we requested?” She tapped her pencil on the table. “I’m so nervous. And excited. And ah! I don’t know.”

“Calm down.” Rosa said. “Just remember that the last request you did took half a year to be fulfilled. And the only reason it was fulfilled was because I went there and pressured them.”

“Well, more like intimidated them until they said yes.”

“We needed the oil, Amy. The squeaking was driving me crazy.”

“What are you blabbering about?” Jake said, trying to insert himself in the conversation.

“You know the oil thing we talked about on Monday? The request pulled through! They gave us what we wanted, and we can finally not hear the chairs moan every millisecond.”

“After I intervened.” Rosa noted. Her feet were propped up on the desk, and Jake couldn’t help but feel that she was too relaxed. “All right, I’ve got to get going. My near perfect track record on Mr. Folly’s class can’t go to waste.”

Amy and Jake looked at each other in confusion, but quickly disregarded it. Rosa Diaz was a woman of many mysteries, and they were satisfied with the random trivia she sometimes threw around. After Rosa left class, however, Jake hurried to catch up with her, giving Amy the excuse that “Rosa had forgotten something on the table.”

“Hey, Rosa!” She turned around.

“Yeah?”

“You didn’t tell Amy about our… conversation, right?”

She crossed her arms. “No, Jake. And I’d never do it.”

“Thank you.”

“But that doesn’t mean anything. Jake, you know how you feel. I’ve told you time and time again that she feels the same way.”

“You don’t know that! You can’t just say that to me. Give me hope where they might be none.”

“Jake.” She put her hands on his shoulders. “You like her. Just say it. I’m sure that even if she doesn’t like you back, you can both remain good friends. Trust her, all right? She’s not that emotionally dumb.”

“Emotionally dumb?”

“Don’t be an idiot.” She turned around and headed to her class.

Jake was left standing there, with only his thoughts to keep him company.

* * *

Amy didn’t see Jake until lunchtime. And even then, he sat as far away as he could from her. Needless to say, she was worried. They were great friends, and she knew she could count on him about whatever. Seeing him so distant reminded of her the times that they weren’t friends at all.

This made her reminisce to her sophomore year, when, after a particularly okay grade, she excused herself from the classroom. After that, she went to the bathroom to cry for a while. Sometimes, she felt her parents asked too much from her. She had seven people to live up to, and she felt like she was never enough. So, she cried when she didn’t get a good grade, or slyly smoked a cigarette under the bleachers, praying to God nobody would ever notice her bad habits.

She didn’t expect anyone to follow her, and she definitely didn’t expect Jake Peralta to ever comfort her. But that day proved her wrong.

Locked in a bathroom stall, she heard her phone buzz. Sniffling, she checked who could ever send her a message at that hour.

 

Jake Peralta [11:23 AM]  
if you need me im outside

 

She stared at her phone screen for a moment. Why would he ever send you that? They were enemies, and up until that moment Jake had never once shown concern over Amy. In fact, he had only showed annoyance.

 

Jake Peralta [11:24 AM]  
don’t worry, im not here out of the kindness of my heart or whatever  
the teacher made me check up on you  
but you seemed pretty upset  
so ill be here until you decide to leave the bathroom  
im not stepping in btw  
I don’t want to get amy disease  
idk if that’s a real thing and I don’t really care  
don’t feel offended tho, it’s a great disease im sure  
hey want some memes?  
I know some pretty funny ones

 

Her phone kept being bombarded with the Jake’s incessant babbling. One of his messages was even about how weird he thought watermelons were, and why in hell did they taste so good. It helped Amy distract herself from her “failure”, and soon she wasn’t sniffling, but laughing at the jokes he was sending, or the weird anecdotes he was throwing randomly.

 

Jake Peralta [11:30 AM]  
I hear you laughing Santiago  
I know im hilarious but come on out  
are you sure you wanna miss the banger that is calc  
I know you love…  
functions or whatever we give in calc  
I honestly have no idea  
why do we even give these things? I don’t know where im gonna apply them  
honestly its kind of ridiculous  
what am I gonna do? Calculate the slope of a cereal box?  
theyre rectangles, amy  
RECTANGLES!

 

Hesitantly, she left the small stall and looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were a bit puffed from crying and her cheeks were a bit red, so she splashed some water on her face, dried it, and stepped outside.

Jake immediately stood up from the floor when she opened the door and greeted her with a smile.

“Why didn’t you reply to any of my texts? I said some of my best jokes. I don’t say those to anyone!”

She didn’t say anything, and simply stepped forward and hugged him.

“Thank you.” She said.

His arms were still in the air, and she added:

“You can hug me back, idiot.”

Cautiously, he put his arms around her, and they hugged for a while.

“If people saw us on the hallways, they’d definitely say we were dating.”

Amy scoffed, and pulled back. “As if!”

“Did you just quote ‘Clueless’ at me?”

“I don’t know… maybe?”

Jake proceeded to chastise Amy on making unintentional references to popular movies that she, somehow, hadn’t seen.

* * *

She was snapped back to reality when half of the contents of her sandwich fell onto the napkin.

“Ah, damn it!”

“You were with the sandwich in your mouth for like, half an hour, Santiago!” Jake mocked her. “What were you expecting?”

“Hey, maybe if someone actually showed up for class, they’d have the right to complain about my do’s and don’ts.” Amy threw back, and it shut Jake up.

Rosa stared curiously at the pair but said nothing.

“Whatever, nerds. Listen to this, because it’s important.” Gina said, and played an audio from her phone.

“All right, fellas. Party, Friday, my place. My parents are gone for a disclosed reason, so I’ll have the place to myself the whole night. Alcohol is encouraged to be brought, but not necessary. Bring your own cups, savages, we need to save the environment.”

The audio stopped, and everyone at the table stared at her.

“Was that your voice?” Charles asked.

“Yeah.” Gina said.

“Couldn’t you have just… said that? Out loud?”

“And waste more of my vocal chords? Amy, sometimes your thought process _exhausts_ me.”

“I thought it was a reasonable question…” Amy said.

“All right, moving on!” Jake suddenly declared. “Friday’s tomorrow, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Jake. Congratulations, you can count days of the week.” Gina said.

“First of all, that’s rude. Second of all, what time are you planning this party? And third of all, can we get dinner together? We do have rehearsal and we’re all leaving sort of at the same time.”

Gina rolled her eyes. “Fine. We can get dinner together. But I’m not paying your meals. To each their own.”

Amy took out her phone and started tapping furiously. Rosa approached her and asked:

“What are you doing?”

“Budget. We’re probably going to dine at Sal’s because Jake won’t take no for an answer-”

“Hey, that’s a great idea!” Jake interjected.

Amy ignored him. “So, I’ll have to ration what money I do have to buy something for the party.”

“Looks like you’re set on planning this out.”

“I plan everything out, Rosa.”

Rosa backed off, and the remainder of the meal was spent in silence, apart from the occasional notification from Gina’s phone or the random joke from Jake. Soon enough, they started heading towards the bleachers. Amy, however, said she was going to the library.

“As I’m not going to study tomorrow, I need to focus all I’ve got today. May as well use every bit I have.”

“All right, your call.” Gina said.

“We’ll see you later, Amy!” Charles said.

They left, and Amy headed to her favourite spot in the library. It was the corner where all the dictionaries were, and barely anyone stepped there. When no one was watching, she liked to sometimes open up one and search to see if she could find a word she didn’t know the meaning of. The probability of finding one was getting smaller each day, and she always had small papers handy in case she found one, so she could do more research at home about it.

She was scrolling through a random dictionary, poised up against the shelf, when she heard a familiar voice interrupt her thoughts.

“Looking for random words again?” Jake asked.

She immediately closed the gigantic book and placed it back in its spot.

“No! I’m not! I don’t do that!”

Jake laughed. “Sure.”

Amy sat down, and Jake decided to sit in front of her.

“What do you want, Peralta?”

“Straight to the point, huh? Can’t you give me any room to breathe?”

Amy crossed her arms. “I’m not in the mood for your jokes.”

Jake gulped. “Look I… I wanted to tell you something.”

She eyed him suspiciously. “Go on.”

“Look… I…” He scratched his neck.

Amy noted his nervous demeanour, and immediately dropped the hard-ass act.

“Hey, whatever it is, you can trust me.” She hesitated. “I’m sorry if I was harsh to you back in lunch. I just hate it when you skip classes, Jake.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk about, actually.” Jake really didn’t want to talk about his feelings, more specifically, his feelings towards her. So, he grasped to anything that was thrown onto him. “I wanted to apologize about that too but I just… I really didn’t want to go, all right? I don’t know why.”

“That’s all right.” She smiled. “You don’t need to justify all your actions to me.”

Jake smiled back.

_God, I really like her. She’s going to be the death of me._ He thought.

_He’s too cute. Shit._ Amy thought.

* * *

Thursday came and went, and Friday was soon upon the five. Rehearsal was going to start in half an hour, so they were just relaxing by the bleachers.

“I’m telling you, me and Rosa have the best popcorn-to-mouth ratio. We practice it every time we can!”

Amy was sceptic. “You’re the clumsiest person I know. How can you be so good at that?”

“He’s right.” Rosa said. “We have a special talent for that.”

“’We’?”

“Yeah, it’s a team effort. My aim and Jake’s ability to know where the popcorn will end up.” Wind flowed into the field, and Rosa brushed her hair from her face. “It’s natural.”

“In contained environments!” Amy said.

Jake rolled his eyes. “Why do you have to use scientific jargon? It’s not cute.”

“You know what the word ‘jargon’ means?” Amy questioned.

“I’m not an idiot!” Jake protested.

Charles and Gina were arguing about something on the production of the play, but soon joined in the discussion about Jake and Rosa’s popcorn talents. They chatted contently, appreciating each other’s company as much as possible, and trying to enjoy all the moments they had together. Sure, the Easter play was close, but graduation was looming ever closer, and even though most of them wouldn’t admit it, they didn’t want to lose touch with each other.

The day was cloudy, but the sun managed to pass through the grey clouds sometimes, giving the field sporadic moments of colour. The wind also picked up in these moments, shoving a few leaves onto Amy’s face, which made Jake mock her endlessly. Not long after that, however, leaves flew into his face, and he shut up, followed by Amy nagging him. Gina soon kicked the bleacher they were on so they would cut out arguing, otherwise she’d go mad.

Sooner than they expected, rehearsal hour was upon them, and they rushed to the auditorium.

* * *

The rehearsal was pretty chaotic. Up in the ‘Control’ room, Amy and Rosa tried their best to keep up with the changes, but they kept repeating a pretty intense scene with flashing lights and then moody lighting with specific colours. It was rough, but they managed to get by.

Jake finally got a chance to act, and he did so as best as he could. Mr. Holt gave him more tips and tricks about what to improve, and he took them to heart. There was only one way to go but up, right?

Gina and Charles did their best to keep the production afloat. They yelled at the seniors, reprimanded the freshmen and did whatever they could to the ones in-between. The sets were still in great shape, and no accidents had happened. Gina was pretty sure that if, like last year, a piece of the set caught on fire, Charles would pass out.

Things were going well.

“You think there’ll be a repeat of the Easter disaster this year?” Jake asked Gina in the backroom, after his scenes were done.

“I hope not. I think Charles would literally die, and I would burn down the whole school. And then kill Amy and Rosa with my bare hands.”

“That’s a bit violent, isn’t it?”

“I’m taking this play very seriously.”

“Wow. All right, I’ll back off.” Jake chuckled.

“I’m serious! If you prank me anytime during the show, I will literally burn your house down! Do not test me, Jacob Peralta.” Gina hit him while saying these words.

“Ow, okay! I got it! You don’t need to hit me that many times!”

They kept talking like that for a while, unwinding from the stress of the day.

Meanwhile, Amy and Rosa were trying to find ways to remove the squeakiness from the chairs.

“I don’t get it. The oil should’ve worked!” Amy said, moving one chair and making it groan, as if to prove her point.

“Look, it’s not my fault that this oil is probably some off-brand liquid. If we don’t fix this problem, though, I might lose my mind.”

“I hear you. Let’s just, try applying more oil, maybe?”

“Is this a band-aid type situation, where you’re just putting more and more and hoping the wound heals?”

“Sure. If that’s the metaphor you want to go for.”

She sighed and tried to rub more oil on the wheels. Then, she had an idea.

“What if we’re applying oil the wrong way? Hear me out.” Rosa lifted her head to look at Amy. “What if we have to apply the oil in the joints of wheels? Help me out here.”

Turns out, Amy was right. They took out all the wheels from the chair, and after using the oil in the joints of the wheel and the chair, it stopped squeaking. As much.

“Well, it’s not as loud this time.” Amy said, staring at the remaining wheels on the floor.

“Shit. Another scene is starting.”

“God damn it!” Amy rushed to the console to do her work.

* * *

By the end of rehearsal, everyone was in ‘Control’, helping Amy and Rosa on the monotonous task of removing wheels, applying oil, and putting the wheels back in their place again.

“You guys did this on breaks?” Jake asked Amy.

“Well, yeah. It’s not like we have anything else to do around here.”

“Oh man, backstage is a lot of fun.” Jake smiled, and told her about the amount of misadventures that went on in that place.

Further back, and seeing their chatter, Gina, Rosa and Charles all stared at each other.

“They really are a pair of idiots.” Rosa said.

“They’re in love! And love makes fools of us all.” Charles sighed dreamily.

“I wouldn’t say ‘love’, but they definitely like each other. Why they don’t act on their feelings is beyond me.” Gina said, while leaning against the wall. “Is it because it’s senior year, and they’re afraid they’ll lose touch? If it is, then that’s a weak ass excuse.”

“I think there’s more to it than that.” Charles interjected. “They just really like each other but have no idea how to say what they want because they’ve known each other for so long. So, I’m going up there and I’m telling them that-”

“Charles, no.” Gina and Rosa said in unison.

“Come on!”

“Let them work it out. It’s not our job to step in and tell them what to do.” Rosa said.

“Surprisingly wise, coming from the Rosa Diaz.” Gina said.

“I’m wise. I just don’t show it to you fools.”

Laughter took hold, and they were back at their duty. When Jake left Amy alone however, Rosa glanced up. And she saw her tuck her hair behind both her ears at the same time. She smiled, thinking that she really had it in for Jake.

* * *

“All right, pizza time!” Jake yelled.

“Quiet down, idiot. We’re in a public place.” Gina seethed.

“So what? Sal’s has the best pizza in the whole city of New York!”

Everyone just rolled their eyes. Sal’s was not, in fact, the best pizza place in the city. Of course, last time one of them had told Jake this, he had gone on a rant so long he had to text out his thoughts at night to finish his argument. It held a lot of sentimental value for him, and everyone knew it. So, they gave in to his demands to eat there every time they didn’t want to waste a lot of money, because the place was relatively cheap, all things considered.

Sipping on their drinks, they talked cheerfully about their day and listened attentively to Gina’s gossip, stopping her whenever they either heard something unbelievable, or when they heard something they saw coming. The day outside was getting darker and darker, and the street lamps flickered on, dimming the white lights of the lively restaurant with yellow undertones. Amy stared out the window, seeing the wind blow trash over the streets, or making it swirl around in spirals, a trap they usually fell into. She noticed the people struggling against the wind, arms crossed in front of their faces, or jackets zipped all the way up, scarves covering their whole faces, sometimes only being able to see eyes. She shivered, thinking of the cold outside.

 “Are you cold?” Jake was sat in front of her, with a worried look on his face.

“Not really.” She said and grabbed her arms. “Looking outside makes me think of how cold it might be.”

“So it’s like, pre-emptive cold.”

“If that’s what you want to call it.”

“I like the name.” Charles interjected. “It’s a good way to describe your coldness.”

“I’m not a cold person!” Amy said. “I just get cold very easily!”

“You’re too passionate to be cold.” Rosa said.

“…is that a compliment or an insult?”

“Insult.” Gina said.

“For you, everything is an insult, Gina.” Jake said.

“Hey, I gotta have my fun!”

“It is funny thinking of it as an insult.” Rosa added.

“Hey!” Amy complained, and hit her shoulder playfully. “I thought you were on my side.”

The chatter rolled on and on, and after managing to leave the restaurant (Jake was talking to Sal and refused to leave), they walked to the nearest supermarket. On the way there, Amy ran to Jake and yelled “Surprise piggyback!” and jumped on his back. He grunted from the surprise effort but managed to keep his ground. Jake ran until he couldn’t handle her weight anymore, and they laughed.

“Oh man, that was exhausting.”

“It’s not my fault you’re in terrible shape.”

Amy laughed because he was panting and, when everyone caught up to them, Amy was still laughing at his exertion. Everyone else rolled their eyes, but she thought it was the funniest thing in the world that Jake couldn’t piggyback ride someone for more than a minute.

“Let’s just go inside and buy supplies.” Jake said after recovering.

“Sure.” Amy said, wiping off tears from the strain of laughing so hard. “Can you handle the shopping cart?”

“Now that’s just mean!”

Going inside, Jake did pick up the shopping cart, and the five moved together to buy things that were in Gina’s shopping list. They would’ve split up to cover ground, but they started arguing about movies and that hole never seemed to end well for any of them. Gina warned them that they didn’t need to buy alcohol, because everyone was bringing some. This got the remaining four to wonder how many people Gina had invited, and that was a question that they left until the party, afraid to know the actual number. She was also serious about the “bring your own cup” rule: they all had to buy an individual cup, which they vouched to reuse as the party went on.

“All right, we’re all done!” Jake said, carrying a few grocery bags that Rosa had brought. “Are we finally going to your place?”

“Yeah. And we’re going by foot.” Gina said, nonchalantly.

“Oh my God.” Jake stared at his arms. “I don’t know if I can reach it.”

“Sure you can!” Amy smacked his arm lightly. “If anyone can do it, it’s you, the great Jacob Peralta.”

“Shut it, Santiago. Watch me prove you wrong!”

All five of them started walking the five blocks to Gina’s house, still arguing over movies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me if you liked this one, and what I could do better!


	5. Party

When they arrived at Gina’s house, Jake swore he couldn’t feel his arms. He struggled with climbing some steps and he almost fainted when they reached the kitchen.

“All right, Peralta.” Amy said, starting to take things out of the bags. “You proved me wrong.”

Jake smiled and attempted to do a thumbs up, but his arms refused to go up. Horrified at the prospect that Amy could ever realise he half-failed the challenge, he just leaned against a cabinet and every time she asked something, he either nodded or shrugged.

“Gina!” Charles yelled, when he got in the kitchen. “Where do you want me to put the plates?”

“Just spread them around the house! Also, I’m pretty sure that the food is either on the counter or on the fridge!” Gina shouted back.

“All right!” Charles finished the weird conversation and turned towards the pair. “Have you seen Rosa?”

“Isn’t she locking the rooms?” Amy was checking the fridge and was taking things out. Jake was still leaning in the same spot, and his arms were starting to function, after he “accidentally” hit the table a few times.

“Yeah, I was.” Rosa stepped into the room at that moment.

“Well, that’s convenient.” Amy was organizing the food on the plates. “You’ve always had good timing, Rosa.”

“No, no!” Charles yelled suddenly. “You’re putting the food in the wrong order!”

“There’s an order to put food in?” Jake questioned, staring at his friend.

“Of course there is!” Charles bolted off the room, shouting “I’m friend with savages. Savages!” as he went to put the food in a perfect way.

Rosa sighed. “I’m gonna help him out. Gina will probably stab him if he makes any more fuss about this stuff.”

Amy and Jake nodded, and were left alone in the room again.

The white tiles of the kitchen floor were a bit dirty, from the particles of the bags and the plastic that surrounded some of the food, which meant that they could see speckles of black here and there, to contrast with the white both reflected off the tiles, and the light emanating from above.

Amy stared at these black dots and pondered cleaning them. However, only one thing came to mind.

“As above, so below.” She mumbled to herself, so low that no one could hear it.

Jake, who had almost all feeling regained in his arms at this point, had heard something, and turned towards Amy.

“What?” He asked.

“Oh! Nothing, nothing.”

“What did you say?” He grinned. “Oh, Amy, what dirty, _dirty_ things were you thinking about?”

“Shut up! I wasn’t thinking about any of that!”

“Then what did you say?”

“God, you’re so annoying!”

“Tell me.” He said, jumping next to her. “Tell me. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me.”

“Jake, stop.”

“Tell me. Tell me!”

“Jake.”

“I’ll only stop if you tell me.” He said as he got closer to her and tapped her nose.

Amy was slightly dumbfounded.

“Did you just… boop me?” She said and got closer to him.

“Maybe. Now tell me!” He got slightly closer.

She sighed and rubbed her temples. “It was just-”

The doorbell rang.

“I didn’t understand over the noise.” Jake asked, again.

“‘As above, so below’”

“Isn’t that a horror movie?” Jake said.

“That’s a horror movie?” Their faces were so close that Amy could see Jake’s brown eyes so clearly, and the light made them seem so beautiful.

_Beautiful?_ She thought.

The doorbell rang again.

“GINA!” Jake and Amy yelled at the same time. Noticing their sudden proximity, they stepped away from the other.

Jake coughed, and excused himself to the bathroom. Amy stood by the kitchen, and slowly threw her head back, rubbing her hands on her neck.

Had she almost just kissed Jake? Was he trying to kiss her?

_This is going to be a long night._

* * *

 

Jake was in the bathroom, contemplating what the hell had just happened in the kitchen.

He was so close to kissing her. He was admiring her face. Her eyes, her lips, her nose. The way she laughed, the sounds she made when she was annoyed. Jake was head over heels in love with this girl, and he didn’t know what to do with that information.

Well, he did know what to do with it, he just didn’t want to do it. Admitting his feelings for someone was always a terrifying prospect. What if they didn’t like you back? What if they did like you back, and then things didn’t work out? He could only think of the heartbreak that could follow after saying what he felt.

He stared at his reflection.

“You’re being an idiot.” He said to himself. “Just get out there and pretend everything is fine.”

He splashed some water on his face and opened the bathroom door. Music was already blaring from the living room, and the house was already at half capacity. When he accidentally bumped into Rosa, he had only one question on his mind.

“Did everyone arrive at the same time or was I that long in the bathroom?”

Rosa laughed, something Jake did not expect.

“They all arrived at the same time, to be honest. I think that Gina literally invited the whole school.”

“The whole school doesn’t fit here!”

“Well, then pray that everyone doesn’t get here. But before this gets even more full, I’m going to grab drinks before there are none. Want to join?”

Jake nodded. “Yes, please.”

Rosa guided him through the crowd to the kitchen where, thankfully for him, Amy wasn’t around anymore. Charles was, and he was seemingly yelling at everyone.

“You don’t pour beer like that! Let me show you, you fool!” Jake caught one of his rambles and he laughed. He sure was passionate about food _and_ drinks.

“All right, where are the beers?” Jake asked.

Rosa went to the fridge, shoving people in her way and managed to take out two bottles. She didn’t even decide to pour it on her cup (which was surprising attached to her pants with some sort of wire and strap combination. Whenever she pulled it out, it left a wire that would immediately put it back in its place if she let go of it), and just drank out of the bottle. Jake followed suit.

“Why do we always have to hide drinks in public?” He said, once he finished his gulp. “I don’t get it.”

“Something something prohibition law something.” Rosa replied.

“Fair.” Jake and Rosa tapped their bottles together, the clinking sound being drowned by the loud talking of other people nearby and, soon enough, by their own. Either mocking Charles or Jake (he didn’t dare mocking Rosa), their conversation carried the night.

* * *

 

Amy was sitting in the living room, sipping on her cup of who-knows-what that Charles had made with the wide variety of drinks in the kitchen. She barely tasted the alcohol in it, but she knew it had tons of things (the blue hue it had was suspicious alone), so she was taking slow gulps. She really didn’t want to get drunk tonight.

She could feel she was getting a bit spacey, though.

“How’s it going here?” Someone asked her. She didn’t really know who it was.

“I don’t know. Guess I’m trying not to get drunk. Which is, you know, unusual.”

“For this party? It might as well be. They don’t even have pilsners!” The guy said.

“Pilsners?” Amy tilted her head. “Why would there be pilsners?”

“They’re the best drink ever made.”

She excused herself and made a mental note to herself to avoid that guy was much as possible. Who thought pilsners were really that interesting? No one that she knew, that was for sure.

She did want to go to the bathroom, but the line was pretty long, so she just went to the division of the house that had less people: the kitchen. Which, to a certain extent, surprised Amy. Maybe people got intimidated about Charles’ attitude on doing drinks properly and just spread out doing whatever they felt like doing. Or maybe the music in the living room was attracting everyone. Whichever the case, the room only had Charles and a few scattered people dotting it.

“So, I really liked the mixture you made. Where did the blue come from?” Amy asked him.

“A chef never reveals his secrets.”

“Isn’t a chef for food only?”

“Whatever, Amy.” Charles grabbed a couple more drinks. “Want one more?”

She stared at her half empty cup.

“I’m still not done with this one…”

“Then it’s time to chug!” Charles said. “Chug, chug, chug, chug…”

The few people that were there started chanting, and Amy had no choice but to down the whole thing. After managing to do it all (which wasn’t that hard), she put her cup on the table harshly and raised her arms. The people cheered, and she smiled, almost proudly.

“All right, drink number two.” Charles held two fingers up. “Coming up!”

She sighed. It was going to be a long night, all right.

* * *

 

Jake and Amy’s path somehow kept not crossing. It was as if fate didn’t want them together at all that night. Jake kept cruising over from stranger to acquaintance to friend, from living room to kitchen to hallway, always dodging Amy unintentionally. She was either leaving the bathroom when he got into the kitchen, or she was stepping into the living room while he was talking in the other corner of the hallways.

They didn’t really attempt to look for the other and try to talk as usual, because the lingering threat of the _almost kiss_ was still in the back of their minds. Down deep, but it remained there, a nagging thought that they should probably be talking about what happened, but also a sentiment to enjoy the party.

And talking about _the thing_ would just sour the mood.

That’s what Jake was thinking, when he saw Amy at stage three: Amy dance pants.

“How long has she been swinging wildly with no music on?” Jake asked Gina.

“I turned the music off five minutes ago. I think.” Gina replied.

“Oh. Well, maybe put on something?”

“Why? It’s fun seeing her like that.”

“I think it’s kind of sad seeing her do that without any background noise.”

Gina rolled her eyes.

“Fine, dumbass. I’ll put on a random song.”

“What do you mean, dumbass?” Jake spun around to face her.

But Gina was already heading towards the stereo, scrolling through her phone to put on something. Jake sighed and stared at the scene. He guessed that most people were already used to seeing Amy’s misery of a dance, so they just let her be. She was in the middle of the living room on her own, dancing to her heart’s content. Sometimes he wished he could be that predictable when he was drunk.

Sometimes he wished he was predictable at all.

It wasn’t the time or place to think such thoughts, though. Maybe somewhere down the line. Maybe never.

Something started blasting, and the crowd cheered and got up. Most people started dancing to the sound of the music, some sat and cheered their friends on, and others were just on their phones doing something else. People really were different from each other.

“Come on!” Someone pushed him onto the makeshift dancefloor. At first he denied, but the more resistance he put in, the more people dragged him in.

“I’ll have you know this is peer pressure!” Jake yelled, but he was having fun dancing drunkenly. He moved from person to person, until he reached Amy.

Fate finally decided to catch up with both of them.

“Hey, you’re really on your own groove, huh?” Jake asked, bottle of beer in his hand.

“Can I take a swig from that?”

“And see pervert Amy? No thanks.” Jake finished what he had left and put it on a nearby table.

Amy pouted.

“Stop spoiling my fun.”

“I’m spoiling your fun? You had it pretty well on your own!”

“Yeah, yeah, you know how three drink Amy goes.” She kept waving her arms randomly.

“Wait…” Jake seemed to notice a pattern. “Are you doing the Macarena?”

“No...?”

“Oh my god we’re going to do the Macarena now!”

Jake sprinted over to Gina’s phone, somehow managed to type ‘macarena’ on it, and tap the correct answer, before sprinting back to his spot.

“All right, let’s do this!”

They had fun dancing with the song, doing the gestures, making sure to exaggerate the “a-ha” before turning around. They had fun, and Jake collapsed on a couch because of the exertion. Amy followed suit.

“God, I’m exhausted. I should be heading home.” He said.

“Same here.” She agreed.

“And you know, it is better to sleep while you’re still drunk than sleeping after the buzz passes.”

“What’s really important is to eat like hell and drink tons of water.” Amy said, picking up her cup and passing her finger through the edge. “Otherwise the hangover is brutal.”

“Really? I guess tonight I’ll try to follow your advice then.” Jake said, while calling a ride.

The room was quiet again, and people were crashing down from the high of the night, either falling asleep on the couches, on the floor, on the tables. Making out in the corners, inevitably leading to something else that probably wasn’t going to happen there in Gina’s place, seeing as all her rooms were locked.

“Hey, Jake?” Amy said, after a while.

“Yeah?”

“What happened in the kitchen?”

Jake gulped.

“Well, Charles made a lot of drinks. I’m kind of surprised he doesn’t do them more often.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.” Amy stood her ground, and Jake trembled inwardly.

Was he really that obvious?

“I… I don’t know. Maybe it was stupid of me, maybe it wasn’t.”

“What do you mean?” She seemed genuinely concerned.

The liquid that was still flowing through Jake’s blood pumped enough courage into him to compel him to tell the truth.

“I like you, Amy. Like, romantic-stylez.”

She was silent, processing the information slowly.

“You don’t have to say anything back. In fact, I don’t expect you to. I know that you don’t like to date people in theatre – the one time you tried it turned out awry, and no one likes to talk about it. But I just wanted to put it out there. So, you know, at least.” Jake sighed. And, as luck would have it, his phone pinged.

“My drive arrived. I think… I’m gonna go.”

“Jake, wait.” Amy grabbed his arm.

“Do you have anything to say to me?”

She looked down and let him go.

Jake left, not looking back. Amy spread herself on the couch, thinking about her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you thought about it!


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